Month: July 2016

I did a special program for kids in grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade this past spring break. My coworker and I have quickly realized that any program pertaining to science will bring a good turnout. I decided to do a Lil’ Scientists program. It was a huge hit and something I might turn into a series down the road.

The one big recommendation is to test all your science experiments before your program. I had to fiddle with a few things to make sure they worked for the kids.I would also recommend having almost everything set-up for the kids before they arrive. Pouring water and cleaning up water is very time consuming.

Observations: I started the program with this experiment. It can take a bit longer for the water to transfer between the cups based on set-up. I already had the water in the cups for the kids, but I allowed them to chose their color combinations.

Observations: I only allowed the kids to do one session with this experiment. I made them choose the person who would have the honor of dipping the q-tip into the solution. Although, the movement only really happens once or twice, the kids still had fun breaking up the pepper.

Observations: This was the kids’ favorite experiment. They loved watching the eruption happen. We were able to even catch an image of some of the fizzling happening. I would recommend limiting the number of food coloring drops. Some of the experiments got too dark for the kids to see what was happening.

Opening Song

Clap everybody and say hello!
Clap everybody and say hello!
Clap everybody and say hello!
No matter what the weather!

Stomp everybody and say hello!
Stomp everybody and say hello!
Stomp everybody and say hello!
No matter what the weather!

Jump everybody and say hello!
Jump everybody and say hello!
Jump everybody and say hello!
No matter what the weather!

Books

Dancing Feet by Lindsey CraigOne More Dino On the Floor by Kelly Starling LyonsThe Nuts: Sing and Dance in Your Polka Dot Pants by Eric Litwin

Finger Rhyme

Dance Your Fingers Up

Dance your fingers up, dance your fingers down
Dance your fingers to the side, dance them all around
Dance them on your shoulders, dance them on your head
Dance them on your tummy, and put them all to bed
Source: King County Library

Actions Rhymes

We Can Jump
We can jump, jump, jump
We can hop, hop, hop
We can clap, clap, clap
We can stop, stop, stop
We can nod our heads for yes
We can shake our heads for no
We can bend our knees a little bit
And we can sit down really slow
Credit: 1234 More Storytimes

An activity I did with the kids was challenge them to contort their bodies depending on what letter I gave them. Another storytime blogger mentioned this activity and it worked really well for this storytime.

Activity Songs by Joe Scruggs

Take Home Craft

Closing Activities

The Alphabet Song
Counting to 20.

Closing Goodbye Song

The Goodbye Train is Leaving
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot.
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot.
Oh the goodbye train is leaving, the goodbye train is leaving
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot

Observations

This was a fun storytime. I’m always up for dancing. The kids enjoyed the change-up with more dancing than rhymes and books.

My co-worker and I were singing the LEGO movie song, “Everything is Awesome!” when we had an ah ha moment! Why not do an “Everything is Awesome! Party” for our kids in grade school that incorporates all their favorite fandoms right now?!?! We focused on Minecraft, Star Wars, My Little Pony, LEGO, Superheros, and Frozen.

We ultimately decided that we would choose a several different crafts/activities, provide a theme-based food, and play The LEGO Movie in the background.

Set-up

My Little Pony Craft Station

Frozen Craft Stations

Star Wars Craft Station

Minecraft

Mixture of Fandoms

Minecraft Food Table

Movie Set-Up

Observations

This was a fairly cost effective program that the kids really enjoyed. The largest expense was food. We didn’t know how many people would show up, so we opted to go for middle of the road and hope for the best.

I would recommend that you make sure all the activities are appropriate for everyone in attendance. We decided to have a perler bead station and asked that only kids in 3th-5th use this station. However, our program was open for kids in grades 1st-5th. Many of the younger kids wanted to do station, and we ended up having quite a few parents creating the artwork for their kids.

Little bunny Foo Foo
Went hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head

Down came the Good Fairy, and she said
“Little bunny Foo Foo
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head.”
I’ll give you 3 chances!
And if you don’t behave, I will turn you into a goon!”

And the Next Day… (Keep going until he is on his last chance)

I gave you three chances and you didn’t behave so….POOF.
She turned him into a Goon.

Themed Rhymes

There Was A Little Girl

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead (point to forehead)
And when she was good
She was very very good. (fold hands in lap)
But when she was bad
She was horrid! (make a face)
Source: Perry Public Library

Observations

Baa Baa Smart Sheep is a really funny book. However, I was afraid some parents/guardians would not enjoy a sheep tricking an ostrich into eating poop. I made the kids promise that they would NEVER trick someone with this kind of prank.

Activity Songs by Joe Scruggs

Take Home Craft

Closing Activities

The Alphabet Song
Counting to 20.

Closing Goodbye Song

The Goodbye Train is Leaving
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot.
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot.
Oh the goodbye train is leaving, the goodbye train is leaving
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot

Observations

I interchanged the word naughty/mischievous. I didn’t want anyone to get any other idea of what this storytime was supposed to be. It was a fun storytime, but it was very difficult to plan.

My coworker and I decided to do a joint program called Battle Bots. We thought it would fit well with our summer reading program (On Your Mark Get Set Read) based on the competition aspect. We knew we wanted it for older kids and opted for kids going into Grades 4th-6th.

To keep the budget reasonable, we asked our community for recyclables that were clean and in good shape. We figured the kids could make their own robots out of these materials. I will explain how we battled them below. Our storytime room ended up looking like a hoarder’s den right before this program. We did have fun laying out everything. This photo does no justice of how many recyclables we really had.

We knew the program was going to have to be an hour and a half. We wanted 30 minutes for building, 30 minutes for battling, and 30 minutes for playing with the library’s own robot. So the minute the kids arrived, we sat them down and explained this outline. We then let them loose to start building and creating.

Some of the finished products.

Now it was time to battle. We had the kids make their own dice and gave them a piece of paper. We then teamed up the kids. The kids would roll their dice at the same time. Highest number won. Three rolls and a winner declared. The kids would then tell us who won and we moved on to the next round until we came down to two kids.

Final Battle:

Once the winner was declared, we moved on to playing with the library’s Sphero 2.0. With 23 kids, I knew I would have to time it out. I gave them each 30 seconds to try and maneuver the robot. They got a total kick out of it.

Verdict: 100% doable for the future. The kids had a blast and they depleted about 90% of our recyclables.